— Surprise of the Day: Detroit Lions’ offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is staying with Detroit, which is really surprising- thought for sure he would fill one of the eight job openings for head coaches (there are only two left now). Apparently he wanted a boatload of $$$, which scared teams off.
— Can’t let January 30 pass without remembering January 30, 2000, one of my favorite days as a sports fan. Can’t believe its been 24 years since the Rams beat Tennessee 23-16, winning Super Bowl XXXIV, their first Super Bowl title.
Quite a game; Rams tackled a Tennessee receiver on the 1-yard line on the last play of the game to preserve the win, after they had blown a 16-0 third quarter lead. When NFL Network shows the highlights of that game every year, I still get queasy during the 4th quarter.
— The Angelos family is selling the Baltimore Orioles to a couple of really rich guys for $1.725B; Steve Cohen bought the Mets for $2.42B four years ago.
— Underdogs are 8-4 ATS in the last 12 Super Bowls, covering the last three.
— Georgia Tech 74, North Carolina 73
Loss ends North Carolina’s 10-game win streak.
Tar Heels were only 9-17 on the foul line.
Tech has beaten UNC/Duke; they’re 1-7 against the rest of the ACC.
— Marquette 85, Villanova 80
Marquette blew a 20-point lead, trailed by 4 with 13:11 left.
Kolek had 32 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds for the Golden Eagles.
Villanova lost its fifth game in a row.
— TCU 85, Texas Tech 78
TCU is #3 experience team that played non-conference schedule #345.
Horned Frogs are 16-5; all those wins in Nov/Dec built their confidence.
Texas Tech was 14-28 on arc; TCU was 11-20.
— St Bonaventure 67, VCU 62
VCU led this game 39-19 late in first half.
Bonnies out-rebounded VCU, 43-28.
Bonnies were 20-23 on foul line, Rams 9-11.
— Colorado State 79, San Diego State 71
Colorado State outscored Aztecs 19-10 over final 7:29.
Rams shot 67.7% inside the arc.
San Diego State lost 3 of last 5 games, after a 14-2 start.
— South Carolina 63, Tennessee 59
Gamecocks have won four in row, 11 of last 13 games.
Last four games, South Carolina gave up only 62.3 ppg.
Dalton Knecht scored 31 of Tennessee’s 59 points.
— Central Michigan 84, Northern Illinois 77, 2OT
Chippewas are 7-2 in MAC, Northern Illinois 0-8.
NIU led by 13 with 12:05 left in the game.
CMU was 26-37 on foul line, Huskies 16-25.
— Baseball Note of the Day: Seattle Mariners acquired 2B Jorge Polanco from the Twins, for four players, one of whom is P Anthony DeSclafani- another is OF Gabriel Gonzalez, who was Seattle’s #3 prospect.
— Word of the Day: Relentless- Being determined to do something, refusing to give up, to the point of sometimes being harsh or inflexible.
— If you have ESPN+, I recommend a 30-for-30 they did a while back, The Guru of Go, about former Lakers/LMU coach Paul Westhead.
If you saw HBO’s Winning Time last year, that show did a hatchet job of sorts on both Westhead and Jerry West; this show is a little bit more of an accurate appraisal of Westhead and what he did in a very interesting coaching career, a career that included him winning a WNBA title, 27 years after his NBA title with the Lakers.
— Was watching The Firm the other night, the 1993 movie adapted from one of John Grisham’s books; really good movie with an excellent cast- Gene Hackman, Tom Cruise, Wilford Brimley.
Two actors with smaller parts in the movie were Terry Kinney/David Strathairn; 30 years later, those two actors also worked in Showtime’s series Billions, which ran for seven years.
One of the things I got interested in during the pandemic was watching a ton of movies, and seeing how certain actors worked together a lot (John Cusack/Jeremy Piven come to mind).
— NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks have lost their last 18 road games; their last road win was back on November 9th, at Tampa Bay.
— Nick Dunlap, the 20-year-old golfer who won the American Express golf tournament as an amateur couple weeks ago, has turned pro. He was the first amateur to win a PGA Tour event since Phil Mickelson in 1991.
Bad week for the golf coach at Alabama; Dunlap was on his team.
— James Harden has never played on a losing team in the NBA; he played on a 41-41 team once, the 2016 Rockets, but every other team he’s played on finished above .500.
Harden’s teams have a combined playoff record of 80-73; his 2012 Thunder team lost in the NBA Finals to Miami.
— Mobile sports betting is coming to North Carolina on March 11, just in time for people to bet on the ACC Tournament. North Carolina will be the 30th state to have mobile sports betting.
— Let’s compare the coaching resumes of two former NFL coaches:
Coach A: 125-106 in regular season, 0-6 in playoffs.
Coach B: 131-122-3 in regular season, 0-7 in playoffs.
Both coaches turned around losing programs, but couldn’t get over the hump in the playoffs. Any idea who they are? (Hint: they’re both retired)
I’ll let you know tomorrow.
